Oats with sun-dried mushrooms and spinach

Breaking the habit here. Made my oats a little savoury today. I had to work with these wonderfully dried oyster mushrooms for breakfast. People in the hills dry most of the food items to extend their shelf life – fish, meat, vegetables or rice.

Prep time: 10 mins | Cooking time: 20 mins | Serves two people

Ingredients:

1 cup breakfast oats

2 and a half cups of water

200 grams oyster/button or any mushroom, cleaned and dried

1 tablespoon butter

4 cloves of garlic

Peri-Peri powder

Dried thyme

Ginger powder

2 small onions

1 tablespoon cream cheese

Salt and pepper

Method:

Oats – Mix 1 cup oats with two and a half cups of water and bring to boil in a saucepan. Then lower the heat and simmer for 2-3 mins while stirring. One it turns into a thick porridge-like consistency, remove from heat and cover the pan with a lid.

Mushrooms – Chop 1 whole packet (200 grams) of dry mushrooms (or even fresh ones) and add to a pan with 1 tbsp of butter, 2 garlic cloves and 1 small chopped onion. Add half a teaspoon each of dried thyme, peri-peri powder and cumin powder. Fry till the mushrooms release some water and it evaporates. Add salt and pepper as required.

Spinach – Add 1 tbsp of olive to a pan with 2 garlic cloves. Add 1 small chopped onion and fry till it turns brown. Add 100 grams of spinach leaves and let them reduce. Add 1 big tbsp of cream cheese, half a teaspoon of cracked pepper and a squeeze of lemon juice. Check for salt and add any if required.

Serving – Set the oats at the bottom of a bowl and top with the mushrooms and spinach. If the oats feel too dry, serve some leftover daal or any gravy on the side. Trust me, it works!